Typography
The design and setting of type: choosing typefaces, sizes, spacing, and measures so that a text reads well and has the right tone.
What problem it addresses
Most of what gets designed is text. Poor typesetting tires, confuses, or keeps people from reading.
Principles
In service of the text
Good typography goes almost unnoticed: it lets the content show.
Legible
Size, line spacing, and line length designed for reading.
Hierarchy
Headings, body text, and notes can be told apart at a glance.
Applications in design
Use it like this
Start with the body text: size, line spacing, and line length.
Avoid
Using many typefaces in the same piece.
Don’t fall for it
On screen, test on a phone and in low light, not just on your monitor.
Connections
Builds on
Authors and works
- 1930
Beatrice Warde
Compared good typography to a crystal goblet that lets the wine show: it should not draw attention to itself.
- 1992
Robert Bringhurst
Gathered the principles of typesetting in a reference manual.
Sources
Original sources
- Warde, B. (1955). The crystal goblet, or printing should be invisible. In The crystal goblet: Sixteen essays on typography. Sylvan Press. (Original lecture delivered 1930).
- Bringhurst, R. (1992). The elements of typographic style. Hartley & Marks.
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